Literature and Politics from a microcosm called Delaware. Here all the multifaceted players across the great capitalist contradiction are reduced to a few actors: a handful of banking and chemical oligarchs squatting in châteaux, a stable of artists downwind who either take inspiration for amnesia and roses or take a stand, challenging the living to repair a polluted world.

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Just out with new preface, 2nd Edition of Autoplant: A Poetic Monologue

"writes with authority and insight into the factory world. He brings his lively cast of characters to life, puts us there with them on the job. The book is funny, irreverent, and touching." Jim Daniels

Untime, by Steven Leech

"Through the parallel universes unveiled in UNTIME, the reader begins to clearly see the world they live in for the first time." -Lynnette Shelley, Brandywine Valley Weekly

The Mother Earth Inn

Neocons and neoliberals party on while Andean Indigenous evolve toward revolution in a country a lot like Ecuador

Pinhead #5

In the The Wedgehorn Manifesto, Steven Leech advocates preserving the legacy of Delaware literature, especially that which was produced by Wilmington authors. It exposes the flaws in today’s environment and suggests remedies for a cultural revival.

Friday, August 10, 2012

UD to Limit Election Debate?

Andrew Groff for US Senate
(Green Party &
Endorsed by Libertarian Party)

Does anyone else in the UD community object to the lack of fair academic and
democratic principles underlying the exclusion of minority parties and
independent candidates from the October 17 and 18 UD-sponsored congressional
and gubernatorial debates? Others are weighing in.

It is one thing for corporate media to be complicit in the
deals cooked up by the major parties to exclude minority parties from debates; it
is another for a university seeking “prominence” to truncate the discourse. Demonstrating
a commitment to principles lacking at UD, the League of Women Voters withdrew
their support for the Presidential debates after the two big parties took them
over in 1988.

According to the press release published in UDaly, organizers
of the debate, Directorof UD’s “nonpartisan”
Center for Political Communication Ralph Begleiter and Delaware First Media President
Micheline B. Boudreau, justify their exclusionary policy based on “nationally
recognized debate inclusion criteria established by the Debate Advisory
Standards Project.” Recognized by whom? by a political class that has discredited
itself to many Americans?

Alex Pires for US Senate
(Independent)

They also rely on precedent, because they got away with this
before in 2008 (and 2010), except that they had to suffer the embarrassment of
Green Candidate Michael Berg hopping onto the stage with a campaign sticker
over his mouth. The video went viral on YouTube.

Among the criteria for inclusion: “3 campaign contributions
per 1,000 residents . . . of $50 or more. “ Alternatively, candidates could
poll 10 percent or more or have previously held political office. 50 bucks is a
lot of money for folks unemployed or living on poverty wages. They may be
disenchanted by the political class but know nothing about the alternatives, thanks
to UD, and will be unlikely to cite minority candidates when polled.

Bernard August for US House
(Green Party)

Without irony, Micheline Boudreaus boasts that “[p]roviding
avenues for civil discourse is a core component of our mission at DFM and WDDE.
These debates also offer a premier learning experience to our student interns
who assist in the production of the event.” Narrowing the discourse is hardly a
“premier learning experience,” unless you are trying to indoctrinate students
in received wisdom. For UD to take part in this pseudo-debate is a violation of
its educational mission.

Scott Gesty for US House
Libertarian Party

So, how do the faculty, who are supposed to be guiding
lights of the university curriculum, feel about this? Does their fear of left
or right spoilers trump their obligations to an open discourse? I say the UD
should insist that candidates who want to use their facilities must abide by
the spirit of free inquiry and take on all comers. They include Andrew Groff
(Green Party and endorsed by Libertarians) and Alex Pires (independent) for US
Senate and Scott Gesty (Libertarian) and Bernie August (Green) for US House.

I'm not surprised at this given how politics generally flow here in the first state. Also don't expect either of my opponents to actually face me in a debate ( 34th representative district ) They have nothing to gain and everything to lose. The Independent Party of Delaware took 21% of the vote for Attorney General in 2010. The solution is to keep fighting and growing the third parties until we can't be ignored.

All Delaware Authors

Broken Turtle Booklist is a catalogue of Delaware regional authors, local publishers, and literary communities operating in Delaware. The Booklist includes audio and video recordings of Delaware authors, as well as their major works. It provides easy links to Amazon, Paypal, or publishers for folks who want to buy. Each month, we will feature a selected work by a Delaware author.

Get Under the Wedgehorn free in PDF

To get your free copy of Steven Leech's The Wedgehorn Manifesto, write us at publisher@brokenturtlebooks.com. Also, Leech is now making a number of his other works in new editions available in PDF format.

What others have been saying about The Wedgehorn Manifesto:

Leech's writer's voice is from the heart, carrying lots of knowledge without pretension. He has a poets's feel for the way words work, and a jounalist's sense of the significant. Wedgehorn Manifesto marks, I hope, a turning point in the effort to preserve from destruciton the habitat in our collective memory of the many talented story tellers, poets, picture makers, and musicians who helped make life bearable for innumerable ordinary folk, and in fact made possible the fine cuture of the luckier few.

-Jonathan Bragdon, Wilmington born artist now living in Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Wedgehorn Manifesto is a call to action, a demand, an impassioned plea for the recognition, respect, and support of Delaware's artistic cultural past, present and future.

-Pat gibbs, columnist, The Wilmington SPECTATOR

Now Available!

Dreamstreets showcased progressive artists, photographers, and writers of the Delaware Valley from 1977 to 2006. A beautiful record of the most vital—if often marginalized—cultural productions of an era. Features two centuries of Delaware's literary heritage. Now includes audio and video files.